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  • 1.  WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-09-2022 09:33 AM
    We've had a 5 year agreement and equipment from Barracuda for our campus web filtering.  I'm reviewing different options for us and wondering if cloud web filtering with a product like Securly is a viable alternative to the on-site web filter appliance and service.  Has anyone transitioned from local web filtering to cloud based web filtering?  What's your experience been?  What was the price comparison for you?  Appreciate any insights you have.

    #ITSystemsandSupport

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    Susan Fuhs
    Director of Information Technology Services
    Norfolk Academy
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  • 2.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-09-2022 03:10 PM
    We've moved to cloud based filtering and overall it is working well.  With all of the remote learning the past couple of years, it was important to have a filter that will work on student devices when they are off campus.  Pre-covid, we had a lot of complaints from parents about students spending too much time on social media/streaming sites on their school computer so the cloud based filtering we a big improvement.  We're a small school so our software based filter is pretty affordable. The major companies (Securly/GoGaurdian) also include a service that flags behavior that may indicate self-harm or intent to harm others, and we are still assessing it's usefulness. It sends out a lot of false positives especially when students are doing legitimate classwork on current issues (gun control) as well as some students trying to "test" the system. We use Apple products and manage them through JAMF, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about the JAMF Safe Internet filtering system which is supposed to be released in "early 2022". I believe that is supposed to simply be a filter and not have the extra bells and whistles.  I hope that helps!

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    Scott Davis
    Director of Technology
    Delaware Valley Friends School
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-09-2022 03:44 PM
    Thank you, Scott!  I appreciate your insight.  We have a hybrid campus with both Windows and Apple devices.  We are using Jamf as our Apple MDM.

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    Susan Fuhs
    Director of Information Technology Services
    Norfolk Academy
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 08:06 AM
    We use JAMF for MDM and Securly for on/off campus web filtering for our student iPads. All other devices on campus (laptops/desktops) are filtered through our Meraki appliance. Teacher laptops are not filtered off campus. This is our first year with Securly and so far I like it (switched from Lightspeed). I found that Lightspeed didn't work as well as I hoped on iPads (it may be different now?). We also decided to try Securly's "Auditor" feature. All emails (staff and students) go through the Auditor (we are a Google school using Gmail). Yes, I do see some false positives...but a few are legit. If anything, the emails are quite entertaining. Odd enough, we had a staff incident with an email that was legit (associated with bullying) and wouldn't have gotten caught otherwise. They are no longer employed.

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    Martha Clagg
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 08:39 AM
    Edited by Jim Anderson 02-10-2022 08:40 AM
    Hi Susan,

    Years ago, we used Lightspeed Rocket as our filter and eventually moved to Palo Alto's Global Protect. That move was due to, what I'll call a "lack of maturity" with Lightspeed's offering, at the time. Using Global Protect proved to be a challenge, since it meant traffic from all off-campus devices cam back through the on-prem firewalls to be filtered. (It also displayed an annoying menu bar icon, which we were not able to suppress...) It is really a product designed for corporate use, not schools. Happily, we switched back to Lightspeed's cloud offering last year. It's a solid product and I recommend it. They've continued to improve, which is a pleasure and relief to see. Shortly after spring break, we will be running a pilot of their "SmartPlay" feature with some Middle School students. SmartPlay purports to address some of YouTube's drawbacks with students. Fingers crossed for that!

    Best,
    Jim


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    Jim Anderson
    The Packer Collegiate Institute
    Brooklyn, NY
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 09:16 AM
    +1 to what Jim said above regarding Lightspeed. They did struggle a bit for a while but they have moved over to a cloud-based offering and it's working great. We are 1:1 with iPads from K-8 and MacBooks 9-12. We filter all the iPads at all times, while the laptops are filtered at school and can be filtered at home upon parent request (we leave it up to parents to decide). We looked at Securly too but felt the Lightspeed setup offers us a little more flexibility in how we filter on site.

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    Trevor Hoyt
    Director of Technology
    Durham Academy
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 11:47 AM
    We used Lightspeed for a year and when we were bringing in iPads they didn't seem to have a good solution, it required an appliance from what support / sales told me. Maybe they have improved since then. I switched to Linewize as it had a better windows solution, Lightspeed was easily bypassed by my students using browser add-on VPN. The iPad solution seems to work well. I am trying to get their classwize platform working and struggling through some development issues on their end.

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    Brian Hoyt
    French American School of Puget Sound
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 11:55 AM
    We made that exact same move (from Barracuda to Securly) a few years ago, and it has been great for us.  It took us a few years to get admin on board with activating the deeper student safety features of Securly, but with a great Head of School and a great Chief of Safety and Security on our side, that rollout has been impressive for us.  We also saved a bunch of money in our conversion (and it's one less on-premise headache).  

    A challenge is that students do try to break through the filter, and since Securly is quite popular, there are a ton of instructions on how to do it on the internet, but all in all, it has been a good experience for us.  And occasionally, Securly will have technical issues that take time for them to work through which may cause unexpected issues with the internet, but generally, Securly gets the issues fixed within a 2 hour window.

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    Justin Hermanek
    The Alexander Dawson School
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-10-2022 12:13 PM
    Agreed. Cloud based filters really need to be paired with a good MDM or you will constantly be playing "whack-a-mole" when students figure out a way around it. This can obviously be more difficult with a mix of device types. Aside from making sure students don't have admin rights, we needed to block access to the App Store and manage chrome extensions (blacklisting all extensions and whitelisting extensions on an individual basis). Students were using those to install VPN software to get around it. We also had to setup firmware passwords on the computers since students learned how to boot into recovery mode and change the admin password. Luckily, our kids aren't good at keeping it to themselves when they get around the filters, so we eventually figure out what they are doing and take the necessary steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. Still, much preferred to only filtering when on campus. There are also legal liability issues if a student makes poor decisions based on actions they took on their school computer, especially if the school didn't place any safeguards on the device to try to prevent that from happening..

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    Scott Davis
    Director of Technology
    Delaware Valley Friends School
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: WiFi Filtering

    Posted 02-11-2022 09:24 AM
    Hi Susan,
    Some great responses already and I wanted to make sure you understand the difference between a firewall (rules based access) + intrusion detection and protection (malware detection and blocking - from the outside in) and content filtering (filtering websites based on category, application, port etc.) All are important tools to have on your campus network. What Securly and GoGuardian provide are content filtering when your devices are not on campus. We employ all these tools. Securly for our PK-8 devices with Auditor does provide great insight for bullying and self-harm.
    I hope that helps and isn't pedantic.

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    Allyn Wenzel
    Director of Technology
    Stevenson School
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    Original Message


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